A Walzerian Theory of Relatively Open Borders

• In Event: Re-Theorizing International Relations

Abstract

Michael Walzer is one of the most prominent critics of open borders in the political-theory literature. In this paper, I argue that Walzer’s intellectual framework – especially his theory of social criticism - provides the basis for a different account of migration controls that is more sympathetic to open borders.
The paper consists of three sections. In the first, I reinterpret Walzer’s argument by situating it alongside much of his work on the limits of philosophical analysis. I suggest that his position should be, in part, understood as holding that migration policy is not something that can be determined by political theorists. In the second, I suggest that Walzer’s broader corpus provides strong resources for political actors to argue for admitting necessitous migrants. For, while Walzer holds that the community needs closure to maintain its character, or more recently that the French have a right to maintain their “Frenchness,” his work on social criticism suggests that that character is never fixed. The third section applies this analysis to the cases of the United Kingdom and the United States. I seek to argue, as a social critic of each country, that coming to terms with the legacy of past domination of other parts of the world requires relinquishing the use of force to prevent migration.
My paper thus makes two important contributions. First, it serves to clarify the social-democratic case for border restrictions by emphasizing its case for situated analysis reliant on local norms. Second, it reinforces the social-democratic case for relaxing migration controls by showing how the intellectual framework of arguably the major contemporary social democratic theorist provides a surprising foundation for open borders.

Author

• Jason Toby Reiner, Dickinson College